A Breezy Night in Juneau & other news

Wind gusts over night include one at 132 mph on Sheep Mountain (from http://www.kinyradio.com/)
A wind advisory is in effect through nine this morning.
Gusts to 50 miles per hour are expected.
Meteorologist Michael Mitchell in the Juneau Forecast Office says there were gusts to about 40 miles per hour at South Douglas. There was a gust to 46 at the Federal Building and it hit 49 miles per hour at the airport.
A 63 mile per hour was recorded at the Mt. Roberts Tram. There were gusts to 85 at Eaglecrest and a gust clocked at 132 miles per hour was recorded atop Sheep Mountain.
The Southeast winds are forecast to diminish to 15 miles per hour this afternoon.

And this one, too:

Studio settlement reported for fake movie news

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) — The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports Universal Pictures has agreed to pay $20,000 to the Alaska Press Club to settle complaints about fake news archives used to promote the move "The Fourth Kind."
The Anchorage lawyer who negotiated the settlement for the Fairbanks paper and six other media outlets, John McKay, said the fake online stories undermined the credibility of the news organizations.
Universal created a series of online news articles to promote the movie about a plague of alien abductions in Nome a decade ago.
(Fairbanks Daily News-Miner)

We have a winner! Oh, and one more thing...

Last post, at the very conclusion of my rambling, I issued a challenge of sorts and I'm excited to announce that we have a winner. Woo Hoo!!! (Make sure to read all the way to the end of this post to see an additional question, with more salmon for the first correct answer.)

Hearty congrats to the Nowak family and their brilliant (yet humble) daughter Brooke for offering the correct answer which is "Robin Hood"! The opening song that is repeated throughout the movie is quite catchy. It's one that sticks with you fo' dayz!

I'll get a few cans of yummy salmon to you guys soon. Maybe I'll include some recipes in case you tossed all your Alaska-themed cookbooks when you moved to the LoneStar State.

CONGRATS AGAIN, Nowaks!!

*** More salmon will be sent to the first reader who comments with the name of the artist who sang the Oodalolly song for the movie... NOT the character (Rooster), but the artist. GOOD LUCK!

The Rundown from Up Here (plus a contest...)

Yes, that's our first snow of the season; we woke up to it on Halloween day.

Ok, let's review a bit...shoulder: I'm scheduled to see the surgeon on Monday the 9th. I've been feeling pretty good since I got the referral. Methinks it is a reflection of how much I don't want to have surgery and how much better I have just been dealing with the inconvenience and (slight) pain.

In a related story, I got my bloodwork results back and everything was normal (including glucose, which is a HUGE concern of mine since diabetes runs in my family), EXCEPT... my Vitamin D levels. Normal is apparently 32 to 100. My number was 16.5, which is common for folks living in Southeast Alaska. The symptoms of such a deficiency are sluggishness (yes!), headaches (yes), lack of motivation (yes), and excessive sleeping (yes). So I've gotten myself a bottle of Vit D and am to take 7000 IU daily for the next eight weeks. (The normal USDA recommended daily amount is 400 IU.) Anyway, I'm anxious to see how things are in a few weeks. I'm excited that this may be just the ticket to me getting more done around here, and in a much more pleasant manner, I might add. I'll keep you posted. Down with SLOTHITUDE! :)

Halloween costumes! So, let me just say WOW! We had a successful holiday if the costumes and candy are any indication. Gwen went as Belle from Beauty and the Beast. She looked beautiful and regal and very much the lady. She was so over-the-top compared to her classmates, but I seem to recall the same thing happening to me as a girl (in costumes such as "soccer ball", "southern belle", and "two-headed scarecrow"). I even let Gwen wear some lipstick - she thought that was awesome, but passed on the eyeshadow, wrinkling up her nose and saying "ewww". Gotta say I wasn't too upset about that! Gwen was a little shy about approaching houses, but Amelia just marched right up and yelled out for tricks or treats.

Amelia (Boo Boo) went as Boo from the movie Monsters, Inc. At the eleventh hour I got a sweet costume finished by utilizing my sewing machine for the first time ever. No pattern, very little measuring, but it turned out so well! Amelia was coached and kept saying things like "Mike Wazowski!" and "Kitty!", lines from the movie. She even had a Sulley doll for Daddy to carry around while they were out on the town begging for treats.

I've got some better pictures but I'm having a hard time using the laptop to get then on the blog. I'll work the kinks out soon and share more later.

And in the vein of the ever-popular BLOG GIVE AWAY, I'd like to offer a can (or more, depending on your family size) of locally caught and processed Coho (silver) Salmon to the first person who can name the movie this phrase is from....

"Oodalolly, Oodalolly, Golly what a day!"

Enter your guess/answer in the comments section and I'll get that prize out to you ASAP.

Good luck to all!

It's Always Something...

I've been having a fair bit of pain in my right shoulder for about a month, probably longer. Greg and I keep telling the girls they are just growing too big for Mommy to keep picking up, and I've altered the way I do just about everything around here, from putting on my socks to driving to carrying groceries... it's gotten pretty inconvenient to say the least. At first, we assumed I had slept on it wrong. Then I suggested that I probably have that pain because I carry all my stress in my shoulders and neck. It was really a never-ending speculation festival.

Just this week, I finally recognized the pain. In college, twenty years ago(!!!?) and only a week apart, both my shoulders suffered separations and dislocations during soccer games. Ironically, both of those games were at a stadium in St. Louis. (Cue the eerie, creepy music.)

At the time, our athletic trainer told me I'd need to have surgery if I wanted to continue playing competitively. I was only 19 and thought I could give up soccer so I opted not to have the surgery(s). I hit the physical therapy pretty hard and ended up with no adverse effects, other than the unique party trick of being able to pop my shoulders in and out of socket at will. I even went back to playing soccer regularly about six years after my injuries (currently playing three nights a week), and never had any problem, until now....

So, even though this pain felt vaguely familiar, I was truly hoping that indeed I was just falling apart, another popular hypothesis with our crowd.

Today, I got a much more official speculation from the doctor. She referred me to the orthopedic surgeon who I will see tomorrow hopefully. Two words uttered today that I really hoped I'd never hear in relation to my own medical care were "rotator cuff".

I'm gonna need to get tougher.

Kids say the darndest things!

So, right back in to the routine, Amelia and I dropped Gwen off at school then had a fabulous time grocery shopping earlier this week. She is quite the little adorable goofball. Throughout the entire store, for almost a whole hour, every item that I put in the cart received a lot of clapping and one huge, "THANK YOU GOD!!!" Seriously.
Cheese sticks? "THANK YOU GOD!"
Organic milk? "THANK YOU GOD!"
Two cartons of brown eggs? "THANK YOU GOD!"
One poor dented, damaged, neglected box of No-Bake Oreo Cheesecake Mix on clearance? "OH THANK YOU GOD!" OK, even I said it for the cheesecake!

Business as usual

Well, I'm back. I left home all by myself and lived to tell the tale. I missed the girls "show bad" as Amelia would say, but had a really fun time with my friend Amy, who has not changed a bit since we were kids. I only have a few pictures to share at this time since our computer is on the fritz, but I'll add more when I can.

Here we are in front of the Arch (Thanks for the pics Amy; sorry but I just HAD to use this shot! It shows us exactly like we were all weekend - laughing and joking and being silly and trying not to pee ourselves.). We did some of the obligatory things like seeing the Arch, but we did it in style atop a four-seater bike through the downtown traffic, swerving to miss the horse manure left by the fancy tourist buggies.

To prevent your sheer boredom, I won't share the vast majority of the pictures I took on this trip. There are lots of things that my kids don't see very often, if ever.... bridges, traffic, trains, sky-scrapers, graffitti, billboards, farms, muddy rivers, fall colors, pollution... the list is endless. And while I had a great time catching up with Amy and meeting her family (they.... are..... AWESOME!), I had a really hard time being in the big city. (Hope I didn't complain too much, Amy!) It was quite the eye-opener for me to realize how truly Alaskan I am to the core.

I'm not sure I'll ever do another trip without the girls and Greg while the girls are still young, but being away gave me exactly the break I needed and the focus that I was lacking before I went. Next time I might just head out the road for an overnight hike/camp instead.

Mini Vacay for Mom

Well, I am actually doing it. I am going on a kid-free trip and while I was fairly excited about it, I find I am now kind of nervous. I have to be at the airport tomorrow at 6am and I'm already dreading the leaving. The 'being there' part will be great, but it's just being anywhere without the girlies and Greg that is going to be rough. I've never been away from Boo overnight. Aside from Gwen's first week of life, I've only been away from her twice overnight (once at her cousins' and once with Granny). Plus, both girls are coming down with what look to be pretty bad colds. Greg is never going to let me leave again.

I'll be gone for five days, to St. Louis to see an old friend whom I just reconnected with this spring on Facebook. Will wonders never cease? Look out, Dysoninskiwicz! Here I come!

Hunting and Training and Bears, Oh My!

So, we've had several crazy weeks/days.

On October 1, Greg left for a hunting trip with a new buddy from work, and even though I had the complete itinerary and all the specs for the boat, trailer, truck, passenger, captain, and location, plus the Plan B and Plan C info, I was still unusually uneasy about this trip.

My anxiety manifested itself in unbridled shopping each day Greg was gone. As we are on quite a tight budget, this was not good to say the least.

What IS good, however, is that Greg is back safe and sound. He and his friend had a fun trip, their weather was awesome (crisp and clear) and they got to explore an area that Greg had never had time to in the past (It's a secret, I can't tell you where they went!). There is no meat for the freezer, but he may give it one more try before we winterize the boat.
Yes, they went boat hunting. This entails taking as much as the boat can carry while being diligent to leave enough room for a slayed moose or two, as well as room enough for two large burly men to sleep. In addition, you have to be sure to carry enough fuel to get you back home since it's not like there's a station on every corner, or even a corner for said station to be on.
Anyway, it was a pretty luxe trip by our standards, but kind of roughing it by lower 48 criteria (no shower, running water, heat, walls, etc) but it was Greg's one big hunt for the year and he had a good time being out there. They saw lots of moose sign, but no moose. They saw thousands of goats, but weren't prepared to hike up in to the alpine on this trip. They saw several deer but no bucks. And they saw the biggest brown bear Greg has ever seen. Luckily they were in the boat at the time and the bear wasn't.

Speaking of bears.... while Greg was gone, we had one here at the house. He ripped up our trash pretty good and spread it all around the neighborhood (the bear did, not Greg). We also had a mouse in the house and the girls and I had to set out traps. Later that same day (yes, mouse and bear came around just minutes apart), I smashed Amelia's hand in the trunk of my car. She is fine (just a small bruise) but I was a little wobbly to say the least.

Speaking of Amelia (such original segues, huh?), she is potty training! Yes, she's only two and a half but she seems ready so we have the "big girl potty chair" out and are giving it a try. She is pretty hit or miss, but doing a great job so far. Some days she claims she is still a "widdle baby" and needs to wear diapers. But usually she is clamoring for the pull-ups.

Speaking of pull-ups (remember those exercises you used to do in gym class way back when? the trembling arms, the straining, the agony...) Well, I'm not doing them. But I am in training. Lo and behold, I am going to be 40 YEARS OLD in February, people!!! I am trying to lose 40 pounds so I can play in a soccer tournament in Kona, Hawaii over President's Day weekend, which is the same weekend as my birthday this year. I've been picked up by a team from Whitehorse (Yukon Territory, Canada). Since I really want to survive the heat and enjoy the challenge, I am up nearly every morning at 5:39am before Greg goes to work so I can hit the gym.

So far I have almost zero progress to report, but I feel I'm on the right track, if only I wasn't set on eating all the Halloween candy in Juneau before those pesky kids can get it.

Speaking of Halloween, you may wonder what in the world Amelia was wearing in that last picture. She and Gwen were saying good-bye to Daddy and Amelia insisted she wear her "Princess Jaguaria" outfit to do so. It was sent from Yakima by Greg's sister, Suzanne and Amelia loves it. Although I'm fairly certain the little cheetah/jaguar costume was meant to be separate from the adorable princess/ballerina dress, my girls combined the two and came up with "Princess Jaguaria". Behold:
Greg and the girls have a standing date every week at the swimming pool. They have a great time. Greg insists on "lessons" for the first half hour then free time for the second half. It seems like a good plan and the girls get a 'big' reward (it was homemade cocoa last night) when they get home. I may have to join them and do some water aerobics while they are doing lessons.

I can't figure a smooth way to transition in to this, but my mom got a chuckle out of it when I told her, so maybe you will too....

Gwen came home from school last week and told me about all the drills they have to learn in Kindergarten. I asked if she meant fire drills and she said, " Yeah, and drills for the big waves and earthquakes. But the drill we had today was the best one." (By the way, "big waves" = tsunamis.)

"Oh, what drill was it?", I offhandedly inquire.

With eyes gleaming as only five-year-old eyes can, she said, "It was the bear-on-the-playground drill, and it was so fun!"

Winter is here, no kidding!

This is Mount McGinnis, to the west of Mendenhall Glacier for those of you who have been to Juneau. The stunning Mount McGinnis will be featured quite frequently on my blog this winter, as it is my view and my barometer. This is what I see from my kitchen window, from the front yard, from the front door. It is an incredibly beautiful mountain and I've been watching the snow crawling toward me all week. On the days when neither the snowfall nor the cloud cover or fog or rain blocks ol' McGinnis from my gaze, I'll snap shots to show you how quickly and fiercely winter comes in these parts.The bright sun of yesterday melted quite a bit of snow, even at elevation. I have a feeling that today's low, low temps will bring more termination dust soon. We are preparing for hibernation. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Shortest post ever.....

There's new snow on the mountains and it's headed this way!

School Days and Delays

Before we even get to the pictures (they're good ones, too; Gwen is such a big kid, those five years went so fast!) and in the interest of I-don't-know-what, I just want to make a quick point here...

Since "we" started Kindergarten this year, we have collectively as a family referred to it as "real" school as opposed to preschool being more of a "pretend" school, even though we don't call it that. Kindergarten is "Big Kid" school - the real deal. Granted in Alaska, Kindergarten is not a legally required grade, but it is still more official than the wonderful cooperative preschool Gwen attended last year and which Amelia has hopes of attending next year.

So we are all geared up for "real" school, the place that Greg reminds us often where we can't be late, ever. (We, along with many of the other parents and preschoolers, were often tardy for preschool, but only by a few minutes.) Thus far this school year, we have not been late even once, nor even frantic or rushed or panicky, I might add. Believe me, I'm just as surprised as you are.

Today, Gwen wanted to take the bus. I casually mentioned it to her last week one day, thinking we might work up to it, but if not, that would be OK too. Well, she was bound and determined to do it and she had her brain fixed on today being THE DAY. Uh huh. Gwen is milling about with at least three of her classmates while waiting for the bus. Amelia and I are off a ways sitting in the car, waiting for the bus. And we wait. And we wait. And then we finally wait some more.

Once I realize that the bus is really running behind schedule I have to decide if it is better to just be a little late (and risk Greg's frustration) or to rip Gwen away from her pals and suffer the subsequent breakdown just to get her to school on time. We opted to continue with our bus adventure, with Amelia and I following in the car, since our mission was to follow the bus to school and wave at Gwen as often as we could. We all made it just fine, and here are the pictures to prove it:

(EDITOR"S NOTE: We're still not sure what the point of this story is, as alluded to in the first paragraph; maybe it is something about how the mom was doing fine without the "help" of the bus. Maybe some attempt at illustrating to the dad how the "real" school messed up the perfect attendance that was so carefully guarded and prized by the mom. It's hard to tell what the point is what with all the incessant rambling.)

At first, Gwen was just barely civil as we got ready to leave the first day of school (this is way back on Aug 27, FYI.). She wasn't going to smile at all, even though Amelia seemed pretty excited about Sissy being gone all morning. Nonetheless, these girls are not yet early birds, even though Greg is trying hard to instill that trait in them both:Nope, not gonna smile or smirk or grin:OK, maybe a smirk:Oh, wait! She forgot all about her swanky new backpack and lunch bag and all the supplies!Now she's ready for her first day of REAL school!She's in Ms. McLaughlin's class. It's a straight K with only 15 full time students, and two part timers. To the right side of this picture, you can see the red board; that is where the calendar action takes place. Just as suspected, Gwen is NOT the calendar girl this week. Her friend Alyssa is, and that seems to be just fine with Gwen, although she claims Alyssa doesn't do it "right". As a person who is always right, I am hoping to steer both girls far away from this line of thinking. I finally got Gwen to admit that Alyssa has her own way of doing the calendar and that it is just a good as Gwen's way, just different.As you can see, Amelia thinks she belongs in this class as well. I've had to make a pretend classroom at home and do fun activities with Amelia, too, since she is, as she says, a "Big Girl too!"Everything in the classroom is well organized and tidy. It's so different from our chaotic house, that Gwen is sure to learn all sorts of things such as how to keep your stuff put away.There are several big bins of dress-up clothes and both girls think that is the very best part of school:Fast forward about two weeks and here is Gwen at the bus stop for the first time. She was a big hit when she arrived. That's her new friend Alyssa, also smiling for the camera. The kid in the second picture, over to the left in a green jacket is Cade. He lives two doors down and we've been playing all summer with him and his brother Jake, who isn't in this picture, since he rode his bike to school this morning. Sorry these shots are so blurry; those kids are on the move early. They just wouldn't stay still.My camera went on the fritz before I could snap a picture of her getting in the bus, but I got one of her exiting. She was literally on the bus for less than a mile and yet, she seemed to have forgotten all about the plan for Amelia and I to meet her at school and walk in to the building with her.

All grown up! Such a big kid! Wow.

the Punch Line

OK, there is no punch line to the "joke" I thought was going on last week. It's just business as usual here and that business is the business of LIFE.

Just to tie up some loose ends for you, Amelia is not allergic to bee stings. She weathered it like a champ. I held an icepack on her cheek on and off for about an hour, and that was the end of it. You could barely see where the stinger went in by the next morning.

We never had an infestation of head lice here. We are still kind of freaked out and occasionally Greg will get kind of crazy-itchy and think the worst, but a thorough check reveals nothing. We are stocked up on all sorts of products though, just in case.

Gwen seems to really like school. She got to do the "calendar job" all last week which consists of arranging the one whole wall of her classroom into the correct date, day of the week, number of days they've been in school, the month, the weather, etc. She LOVES that job and wasn't quite thrilled to hear that each week the job assignments change. She feels since she is the best at that job she should just get to keep doing it.

Anyway, we like the school a lot. The teacher Gwen has, Ms. McLaughlin, is great. I went in several days to help with lunches just be another adult in the room, but since there are only 15 kids in her classroom, the extra grown-ups aren't really warranted. It's nice to note that I am welcome in the classroom at any time, though. Amelia thinks she belongs there so we do go in at least once a week to help with a tricky recess to lunch transition. The "big" kids really enjoy her being there and the girls dress her up with all sorts of princess clothes and shoes. Amelia just eats it up!

Gwen is getting pretty independent and tells us she'll be taking the bus to school before this week is out. We have followed the bus to school several times, and we'll actually watch the kids get on board tomorrow (several of them are from her class). The next day, Amelia and I will follow the bus with Gwen in it. I was a little nervous about this whole idea until I realized that we are the very last stop before the bus gets to school. She'll be on the bus for all of about 4 minutes, so I think I can handle this.

No pictures today, but I will have some of Gwen's first day as well as the DEADLIEST CATCH crab pots that are now resting in our side yard.

Are you KIDDING ME???!!!

This week in review:

Kindergarten craziness, surprise mullet.... a friend tells us her daughter who was over here all day on Wednesday and went with us to the salon for Gwen's 'do tweak (which is growing on us and looks super-cute) now has lice. Amelia had a 102-degree fever and the rest of us had scratchy throats and flu-like body aches yesterday so we all missed Church, and today Amelia got stung by a bee, which is more than a little alarming since Grandpa is allergic, so I'm constantly checking her for anaphylactic shock and other symptoms. We start school on Thursday and Greg "won" two used commercial (like Deadliest Catch?) crab pots in an auction.

Where is the Candid Camera crew and the laugh track? Surely someone is joking.

Usurper of The Day

Something unexpected happened this week, Tuesday to be exact. It overrode, or usurped if you will, everything else that day.

We've had a whirlwind school season so far and it hasn't even started. We had planned to send Gwen to a Christian school here in town, but after an orientation Monday night, we sadly and suddenly pulled the plug. Gwen would have started kindergarten on Wednesday. But alas, she is still home, while I am frantic to enroll her in another school.

All day on Tuesday I was on the phone or the computer getting tips from the other moms, some of the admin staff at various schools, and even the inside scoop from some of the teachers I know. I spent hours talking to principals, librarians, and to poor Greg who was at work while I literally freaked out at home. As of this post, it seems we have found a school and we are pretty pleased with our decision.

Back to Tuesday....Mid afternoon, during Amelia's naptime, I came up for a much-needed breather, some water, and to answer nature's call and found this:

Kind of alarming to see scissors lying about on the bathroom counter when I've got a toddler, but Amelia was sleeping so I was able to remain calm.

And then I saw this:

Why, it's the bathroom rug. Hmm. What could be strewn all across it? Bend and peer at it closely.... scanning, scanning..... my, my, what's this in the waste basket?

My voice quavered like that of a starlet in a scary flick... "Gwen? Where are you, Bug? Gwen?" Of course with my mother's intuition, I vaguely understood what had happened. But until I saw Gwen, I didn't really grasp the abject horror that had now become my eldest daughter's hair....

BEHOLD!

THE MULLET TO END ALL MULLETS:

(Goodness, I didn't realize how much these looked like mug shots until just now.)

Well, I'll have you know that I am very proud of my reaction. Those of you who know me well will hopefully be rightfully impressed that I said,"Oh, wow. What happened here, Punkin?" while my inter-monologue skipped along with, "Are you KIDDING ME??!!! School pictures are in like TWO WEEKS! OH GREAT! Is that a MULLET?!! Wipe that smirk OFF YOUR FACE right this MINUTE!!! I can't believe I'm on the phone trying to find the BEST EDUCATION for you and-now-you-look-like-you've-just-been-through-chemo-no-wait-oh-man-you-look-just-like-my-brother-where's-the-Flowbee?" (Yes, we do really have one of those. Greg uses it religiously.)

So, we raced off to the salon. There was some hacking and some whacking and then we ended up with this:

I ask you, does this look like a child who is ashamed of her actions? Embarrassed? Chagrined in the least? Nope. We even asked her while we were out visiting last night how she thought Mommy felt about the new haircut. She didn't have any ready response, so I led the witness a bit. I asked if I was mad about it and she quickly, confidently answered "No", as if it was preposterous to think I'd be upset at all. Thus I must have successfully hid my true feelings of sorrow, resignation, and self-recrimination. But be assured, she is not getting unsupervised scissor time until she graduates from high school.

I keep trying to remember that it really could've been worse. I have an ongoing list of positives running through my head...

She didn't poke out her eye. She didn't maim herself or her sister. We can see her pretty eyes and face. No more tangles and fights about brushing. No more losing barrettes and hairbands. No more syrup and yogurt and milk getting into those long locks.

She is beautiful, but I really think this is just a precursor to the teen years. And I'm more than a little scared.

Granny's in town!

We have been on an exciting whirlwind since last Wednesday when my mom flew in from Toledo. Boy are her arms tired! :) Actually, she is pretty wore out....We've been hiking several times, fishing hard for halibut, on the ferry back and forth to Skagway, on the White Pass Yukon Railroad, and now Granny's recovering while we get packed up for derby fishing this weekend. Hard to believe she's only been here a week! The girls are loving it, but they are a little pooped too. Photos to come soon. Thanks for checking in!

PS: During all of our travel, we've been having a robust discussion on whether the girls look anything alike or not. These are bath pictures when they were each just under six months old. You be the judge.

Can you even tell which one is which? I'll be excited to read your comments!

July 4 Round Up

At long last here are pictures from the weekend of the fourth. We headed out to Elfin Cove and Pelican for the festivities and fishing, and also to the outer coast (aka "Big Wide Open Ocean") for some beach combing. It was a gorgeous, perfect day for cruising as Gwen demonstrates here... sunny, warm, hardly any chop.... And then there were whales.

I've had some queries about the sheer number of these huge creatures that we saw that day. I'd guess we were looking at 80 to 90 of them. Some were miles away and some were right next to the boat. It was beautiful and kinda scary at the same time.

This guy was pretty close to us for a while. He was a big solo humpback and we just called him a him because he seemed so huge. I think the males are larger than the females, but I could be wrong. (Yes, really, it does happen sometimes.)The coveted "fluke" photo. It took me forever to get one; my camera was not at its best that day.Greg's mom Linda took some great shots and sent them to us on CD. I haven't included any of them here, but I'll check and see if I can post the best ones. She got some fantastic close-ups of flukes with water dripping and glistening off them.

I think this is one of the mom and baby we saw. We could hear them "talking" each time the surfaced together. That was truly amazing. Whale songs are so eerie and unusual.After about 45 minutes, we had to say farewell to the whales, their songs, and antics. We were hoping to find some of the beautiful glass balls that the Japanese fishing boats use as floats for their nets, so we needed to get out to the coast and see what the weather was up to.

Unfortunately, the water was too rough to put in to the beach on the outside so we found a different, inland beach at the northern end of Lizianski Inlet and tromped around there with Greg's mom and the girls. We got there pretty close to low tide and were able to explore quite a bit. Not a lot to find there due to the lack of people to discard stuff to find, y'know? The girls found a rock formation they called "Sink Rock" because it had two little divots (not the correct geological term, I'm sure... maybe someone knows?) that they could rinse their sandy paws off in before snacking us out of house and boat. Man, give those gals some fresh sea air and they will not stop eating .... I'm already setting some extra cash aside for the teen years' food bill. No, I'm not really, but I probably should be.Greg looked over the area with his big iron as per the usual.The girls and I found a great spot for rock-throwing. This little creek didn't have any fish at the time we were there, but it looked like it was big enough to be anadromous. (That's the five dollar "Alaska" word of the day!) Boo Boo is a southpaw and she could just fling rocks all day. She tries so hard to get each one to land smack in the water and make the telltale splash. If she throws one too short, she says "No!" and shakes her head. She can't end on a "bad" throw either. Once we say, "OK, one more throw, then we have to get back to the boat," she interprets that as one more "good" throw. So we all have to pay attention then to notice a good throw and make the call that we really have to go...Greg taxied us all back and forth on the raft. Gwen and Grandma went first. In fact here they are just getting to the boat on the way out. Then Greg paddled back to get Boo and I last, while I emptied the ammo from the rifle and kept scanning for bears.

Whew- all that and we haven't even got to Pelican yet... come back soon. It'll be worth it!